THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING Director Gives Update on the Haymitch Abernathy Prequel
After the success of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), the Hunger Games franchise is officially heading back to Panem.
The upcoming film, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the highly anticipated prequel based on Suzanne Collins’ forthcoming novel, which will tell the story of Haymitch Abernathy, the iconic character played by Woody Harrelson in the original series.
While fans are eagerly awaiting the book’s release on March 18, director Francis Lawrence is already deep into pre-production.
In an interview with Collider, Lawrence shared new details about the film’s timeline, his excitement for the project, and the challenges of casting a film based on a book that hasn’t been released yet. Lawrence is already preparing for his return to Panem, and he explained the timeline of putting the movie into motion:
“Yeah, I'm shooting that this year. So we've actually just sort of started prep. The book comes out mid-March. We've sort of got a research phase of prep. After London, I'm going to go on a scout, and then we start prepping in April, and we shoot this year.”
Lawrence express his excitement to collaborate once again with franchise veterans, including producer Nina Jacobson and author Suzanne Collins.
“I'm really, really excited for it. It's always great to go back and to work with Nina [Jacobson] and Suzanne Collins. It's such a great world and great stories and great, always super relevant thematics, which always ground it. But, yeah, very, very excited.”
Sunrise on the Reaping will release in theaters on November 20, 2026. Are you looking forward to this book and movie?